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To play or game for money or other stake.

ysical or mental, according to certain rules, for amusement, recreation, or for winning a stake; as, a game of chance; games of skill; field games, etc. But war's a game, which, were their subject wise, Kings would not play at. Cowper.

A person who plays at games; esp., one accustomed to play for a stake; a gambler; one skilled in games. When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentlest gamester is the soonest winner. Shak.

The act or practice of playing games for stakes or wagers; gambling.

To drop from a high place upon sharp stakes or hooks, as the Turks dropped malefactors, by way of punishment. Ganching, which is to let fall from on high upon hooks, and there to hang until they die. Sandys.

allied genera, esp. the European species (Caprimulgus Europæus); -- so called from the mistaken notion that it sucks goats. The European species is also goat-milker, goat owl, goat chaffer, fern owl, night hawk, nightjar, night churr, churr-owl, gnat hawk, and dorhawk .

, or the curve which represents it; as, a thermometric gradient. Gradient post, a post or stake indicating by its height or by marks on it the grade of a railroad, highway, or embankment, etc., at that spot.

latively great; greatest; chief; principal; as, a grand mountain; a grand army; a grand mistake. "Our grand foe, Satan." Milton. Making so bold . . . to unseal Their grand commission. Shak.

sideration; granted without pay, or without claim or merit; not required by justice. We mistake the gratuitous blessings of Heaven for the fruits of our own industry. L'Estrange.

Great; palpable; serious; vagrant; shameful; as, a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence.

n; to be in a state or position of defense or safety; as, careful persons guard against mistakes.

The act of hallucinating; a wandering of the mind; error; mistake; a blunder. This must have been the hallucination of the transcriber. Addison.

Anything that is hazarded or risked, as the stakes in gaming. "Your latter hazard." Shak. Hazard table, a a table on which hazard is played, or any game of chance for stakes. -- To ru, to take the chance or risk.

ess snake of the Southern United States (Abaster erythrogrammus); -- so called from the mistaken notion that it curves itself into a hoop, taking its tail into its mouth, and rolls along with great velocity. -- Hoop tree (Bot.), a small West Indian tree (Melia sempervirens), of the Mahogany family.

A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for inclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as revetments, and for other purposes.

one variety of which produces white, and another blue, flowers; -- called also, from a mistake as to its origin, Hyacinth of Peru.

h honor after their defeat; yours with ignominy after conquest. Addison. Vice begins in mistake, and ends in ignominy. Rambler. Ignominy is the infliction of such evil as is made dishonorable, or the deprivation of such good as is made honorable by the Common wealth. Hobbes.

ied as in any way to lead to an erroneous perception; as when the rolling of a wagon is mistaken for thunder.

To pierce with a pale; to put to death by fixing on a sharp stake. See Empale. Then with what life remains, impaled, and left To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake. Addison.

An inclosing by stakes or pales, or the space so inclosed. H. Brooke.